The Pop Life

By Neil Strauss

Published: June 15, 1994

Speaking for Soundgarden

In 1988, Soundgarden became the first of Seattle's so-called grunge-rock bands to sign with a major record label. Its ascent, however, has been slow. It wasn't until March, when its album "Superunknown" (A&M) entered the pop charts at No. 1, that Soundgarden reached a level of success comparable to that of other Seattle bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Tomorrow and Friday night, Soundgarden is to perform at the 5,000-seat New York State Armory in Manhattan, which rarely has concerts. The shows sold out in less than two days.

Soundgarden plays slow, bluesy heavy-metal dirges rooted in the hard rock of 70's bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Its songs seem to come from a heart so overloaded with pain that it has become numb. But speaking by telephone before a concert in Chicago, the Soundgarden singer, guitarist and songwriter Chris Cornell sounded anything but numb. In fact, he was quite passionate, especially when given the opportunity to expound upon the group's success.

On fans: "When we were touring with Danzig a few years ago, and there was some big, muscle-bound guy causing problems in the audience, we'd always go, 'Oh, that's Danzig's fan.' But maybe it wasn't. Now that we're on our own tour, we have guys like that coming to our shows."

On Lollapalooza, the alternative-music summer tour founded by the singer Perry Farrell: "Maybe Lollapalooza isn't really as diverse as someone like Perry Farrell would think. I just hope that people don't go there with the idea that they're being exposed to a wide variety of music and art. . . . We were on the bill a couple years ago mainly because our booking agent did Lollapalooza and our record was doing O.K. and we were from Seattle. They had a token girl band and a token rap band. I think we were the token misogynist band."

On Woodstock '94, for which Soundgarden turned down an invitation to perform: "Woodstock, to me, is really nothing more than a way to do a Lollapalooza this year. I think we've spent enough time playing in situations like that. It isn't our show. For people that are nostalgic, they can go see some band that's re-formed like the Eagles."

On skyrocketing ticket prices (Soundgarden's are a reasonable $18 to $20): "We don't need to have $50 tickets because we don't have inflatable creatures and stuff like that to pay for. It would probably be in our best interest to lower our ticket prices considering who we're going up against in terms of competing for sales this summer." A Dream That Hums

The Minimalist composer La Monte Young calls it a "dream house." It's actually a sound-and-light installation in an unfurnished room above his loft in TriBeCa. Arranged around the magenta-lighted room are six speakers, which drone continuously. Although the frequencies they emit never change, the sound they combine to produce is different at every point in the room. Walk through the environment or just turn your head in slow circles, and a musical composition unfolds.

"I started thinking about the possibility of doing tuned rooms in the 1960's," Mr. Young said as he sat in his dream house last week with his wife, Marian Zazeela, who designed the room's lighting. "But this is one of my most advanced and far-reaching creations yet."

Coming from Mr. Young, those were big words. His pioneering Minimalist compositions in the 1950's paved the way for Philip Glass and Steve Reich; his 1960's group the Theater of Eternal Music included John Cale, later of the Velvet Underground, and his continuing composition, "The Well-Tuned Piano," has been cited as the most important musical work of this quarter-century.

Decades ago, Mr. Young's loft used to hum with a single frequency for months, even years, at a time so that he could experience what he called a "drone state of mind." Because of rising electricity costs and shrinking arts grants, however, this dream house is open only on Thursdays and Saturdays from sunset to midnight. Appointments at other times may be made by calling the MELA Foundation at (212) 925-8270. Loose Notes

*Michael Jackson has been working at the Hit Factory studio in Manhattan on new songs for an album he plans to release this fall. Lee Solters, Mr. Jackson's press agent, said the recording, titled "History," will be mix new material and old hits. Although Mr. Solters declined to comment on reasons for the album's release, recent scandals have cost Mr. Jackson tens -- possibly hundreds -- of millions of dollars in legal fees and out-of-court settlements. A source at Epic, Mr. Jackson's record label, added that the greatest-hits package, which has been in the works for some time, was being rushed out to turn public attention back to Mr. Jackson's music.

*Bob Dylan, who outraged folk-music stalwarts when he went electric in 1965, has now gone interactive. The seminal singer and songwriter is working on a CD-ROM retrospective of his career with Graphix Zone, the California multimedia company that recently released the CD-ROM "Interactive" by the artist formerly known as Prince.

*Now that nearly every notable rock record has been reissued as a deluxe CD with bonus songs and comprehensive liner notes, what are record labels going to do next to generate new profits from their old albums? The answer, unfortunately, seems to be that they're going to reissue the same albums again, in inferior packages. In July, Capitol Records will discontinue its eight Beach Boys "twofer" CDs, each of which compiled two of the California band's notoriously short albums on one CD and included extra tracks and extensive liner notes. Instead, Capitol will reissue each album as a separate CD -- 16 in all -- with no bonus tracks and few if any liner notes. "We're trying to release the albums as they existed in their original release form," said Phil Sandhaus, a vice president at Capitol, "and I think we're doing it with integrity."

*The folk-rock singer Edie Brickell recently finished recording her first studio album since she parted with her band, New Bohemians, in 1991. Although Ms. Brickell's husband of two years, Paul Simon, co-produced the recording and plays guitar on the album; the soul crooner Barry White, the New Orleans pianist Dr. John, and Art and Cyril Neville of the Neville Brothers are also featured. The album, due Aug. 16, is titled "Picture Perfect Morning."